Stray Italian Greyhound
by Bananas and Opium
Summary: Secrets behind her birth...they could be her breaking point, or perhaps only the beginning of her new life. Maybe it's the rush of the wind, or the dark air lingering from the appearance of the cold ones, or the fear of their return...
1. Slow Heartbeat Monotone

**Author introduction: **This is the first chapter of Stray Italian Greyhound. The title comes from the Vienna Teng song of the same name. Thank you for clicking, and I hope you enjoy it. I actually originally wrote this chapter, as well as what would have been a prologue, set back in December to correspond with the lyrics to Coldplay's Violet Hill. I ended up changing it so that it would be easier to write and have less of a dramatic effect on the plot leading up to the official beginning of the story. As a result, what would have been the prologue will be written into this chapter. Again, thank you for reading. I'm using four songs for this chapter: Violet Hill by Coldplay, Daughter by Vienna Teng, Lost? by Coldplay, and Adagio for Strings Op. 11 by Barber. You don't have to listen to them while you read this, but they are the songs I used while writing, and the lyrics I put into this chapter are from those. One more thing: sorry if this chapter seems boring. I need it for the plot to progress.

**Characters: **So far, this story will feature Bella, the La Push guys, and Renee as main characters. Yes, Renee has a very important role in this, despite not appearing as much as we'd wish. After all, she does live in Jacksonville, and this story takes place in Forks. Also, I'm sorry if Bella begins to seem a little OOC from the way she appears in the books. She's a dynamic character, after all, and the things she goes through will change her. (A dynamic character is, of course, a character who changes throughout the course of the book.)

**Warnings: **Cursing, violence, occasionally suggestive themes/situations, extreme dark angst. Also, if you are a fan of Edward, this story doesn't exactly go in his favor. Not at all. Also, this is NOT a Bella/Jacob story, as you will see. Now that I'm done with that, on to the story!

**Chapter 1: Slow Heartbeat Monotone**

_It was a long and dark December_

_From the rooftops I remember_

_There was snow, white snow_

_Clearly I remember_

_From the rooftops they were watching_

_While we froze down below..._

_-From Violet Hill by Coldplay_

The exhausted brunette sat up in bed, her body weak from another night of sleepless dreaming. The dreams had kept her up again as the sound of sad, melancholic music drifted through her innermost thoughts. They were black and white, with sad violins playing a sorrowful tune in the outskirts of her mind that kept her wandering in her own mind, lost without any idea of how to escape. Every night, the haunting tunes wore out her mind and her body, and her sleep went with little rest, and in the morning it was as if she had never fallen asleep to begin with; she awoke even more exhausted than she had been the night before her escapades.

With this powerful exhaustion racking her body, she felt compelled to stay in bed and began to notice everything that seemed to be wrong with her. In the back of her mind, a dull thudding she recognized as her heartbeat clicked slowly and constantly, never breaking the constant tempo. The beating controlled every aspect of her movements, giving her weakened body a monotonous tone, which spread from simple movements to the few words that ever escaped her lips.

The brunette considered it a small mercy that she could even hear her heartbeat at all after it seemed to have disappeared altogether when he had disappeared, leaving her life a distraught disarray.

As she went to move, pain shot through her body, causing her to cry out in pain and let her arm sink lifelessly back to the bed, where she lay staring at it because somehow she could move her eyes enough to look. She lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom and wishing that she could play some sort of music without having to move. She knew, however, that this wouldn't be possible (or practical) and instead settled to get up and move to the bathroom for some Tylenol. As she stretched out her limbs, she groaned in pain again, and felt compelled to call Jacob, knowing however that his father would refuse him visitors. He had mono, after all, and while she could usually trust Billy she found herself not quite believing his story about Jake's condition.

Finally, Bella found herself able to get out of bed and painfully trudged down the hallway to the bathroom, where she threw open the medicine cabinet and retrieved a bottle of painkillers. Taking the prescribed dose with a handful of water, she decided that she probably also needed some food, and was surprisingly hungry compared to what she'd been for the last few months, if not for her entire life.

She made her way downstairs and saw that Charlie had already left for work, despite it being a Wednesday he didn't seem to mind that Bella had decided to skip school, likely due to the fact that she not only looked like shit but sounded like it too, and also probably because Charlie was Charlie and despite not being very verbose he clearly cared about his daughter and didn't want her to overexert herself when she was sick.

Bella pulled out some bacon that she'd bought from the supermarket and fixed it with some eggs, then scarfed the meal down. She found herself thinking of Jacob again, and then the promise she'd made not to cal him again until Saturday. This promise was getting increasingly harder for her to keep even though she now had her own problems to take care of since she had fallen sick as well.

The brunette didn't know what exactly she would do today since she was sick and out of school with no Charlie around to keep busy, so she half-heartedly told herself she'd watch TV. After cleaning up the dishes, she moved over to the couch and sat down, grabbing the remote and turning on the old thing. She scrolled through the channels until she saw something remotely interesting: a soccer game. The announcers had intriguing Cockney accents that made their commentary on the match so much more interesting. Looking to see who was playing, she saw the two names: Liverpool and Manchester United.

By the end of the game, Bella found herself enthralled; the players' movements and the enthusiasm of the fans and the announcers left her breathtakingly waiting for the next goal. Grabbing the remote, she checked what channel the game had come on.

"Fox Soccer," she murmured, her eyes still watching the replay of the close game that had turned out 2-1 in Liverpool's favor. Even after the game ended, Bella was unable to turn off the game; instead, she kept watching the sports announcers talk about soccer-she corrected herself, _real football_-and teams and players with increased enthusiasm.

At about noon, Bella drew herself away from the television long enough to make a ham sandwich, then resumed sitting in front of the television, listening intently to the sounds of announcers with their accents babble about different players and stats. By three, she'd learned more than she needed to know about the way the sport worked and the basics of the game. At four, a game would be coming on between two South American teams she'd never heard of before and couldn't pronounce, and she planned on using that game as an opportunity to figure out a little bit more about the game itself.

At three thirty, Bella went back into the kitchen and popped a bag of popcorn that she planned to intently eat while watching the game. It was then that she realized that despite her pain, the thudding monotone in the back of her mind seemed to have been growing softer. It was still there, still heartlessly throbbing in the back of her mind, but she seemed to have tuned it out enough. This is so strange, she thought to herself. I've never been a sports person. So what's so cool about this?

Bella proceeded to lose herself in the game, letting her mind focus on something other than the pain that still racked her body and the numb heartbreak that still haunted her. She found herself expressing more emotion through that simple action than she'd expressed since September.

Needless to say, Charlie was shocked to arrive home and find her sitting on the couch, her eyes glued to the screen, watching a game between the United States national team and the Italian national team.

"Yellow card!" Bella said, slamming her fist down on the couch. "Someone should've called that!"

"Soccer?" Charlie raised an eyebrow at his daughter's strange behavior.

The brunette proceeded to look up and nod at her father, her mouth full of Chinese food. "I ordered take-out," she said through a full mouth of friend rice. "Yours is on the table in the kitchen. I didn't want to miss any of the game, so I just took the easy way."

This is so unlike me, Bella found herself thinking again. What is going on? First I'm all hungry, now I'm addicted to a sport I didn't even care about until today. This is weird.

She swallowed her mouthful of fried rice and went back to watching the game with silent enthusiasm, occasionally letting out a cry whenever a player she particularly favored scored a goal or when something bad happened.

All the while, Charlie watched her from the recliner, not daring to change the channel because this was the happiest he'd seen his daughter in months.

"Are you feeling better, Bella?" he asked nervously after the first hour of the game had passed.

"I took some painkillers, Dad," she reassured him. "I'm fine."

After the game ended, Bella stood from her place on the couch and trudged into the kitchen to clean up the mess she'd made. She mentally criticized herself for eating that much and threw away the boxes the take-out had come in, as well as washing out the bowl she'd poured the popcorn into and the plate and frying pan from her breakfast that morning.

The brunette yawned, exhausted; though, from what she did not know because she didn't know it took a lot of effort to sit on the couch and watch soccer all day. Then she reminded herself of the sleepless nights she'd momentarily forgotten about.

"Dad, I'm going to bed," she said with another yawn before making her way up the stairs. Something inside of her hoped that she would finally sleep well. Her entire body still ached, but she didn't have much hope that she could avoid the sound of the tragic violins playing in her ears, seeping through the crevices of her innermost thoughts like Siren songs.

She took another dose of painkillers before she sat down in bed and quickly fell to sleep.

* * *

><p>Bella awoke to dim light shining in her window and the sound of rain hitting the window as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The thudding in the back of her mind still pounded dimly and lifelessly, and her motions still followed its rhythm, but her body was not nearly as sore and her mind felt like a cloud had been lifted from it. Suddenly, she realized that she'd actually slept through the night without the dream of melancholic music taking her strength again. She felt somewhat refreshed, albeit still numb and lifeless.<p>

She got out of bed and walked to the bathroom, checking the clock on her desk. It was already almost noon. She hoped that she could waste another day like she had the day before and without making such a huge mess.

After deciding that such a thing was impossible, she instead resolved to go to the supermarket and stock up on food. Her stomach insisted that she cook some more bacon first, however, and so she mentally created her schedule for the rest of the day. Breakfast, then grocery store, then home. She didn't quite know what she would do when she got home, but she figured it would have something to do with either dinner or soccer. Either way, she was content with whatever she felt like doing.

Walking downstairs, she fried the rest of the bacon and eggs that she hadn't eaten the day before. She wrote the items down on her list of things to buy when she went to buy groceries, then scarfed down the meal she'd just made.

"I don't care that you're not supposed to fry your eggs in bacon grease," she murmured to herself. "It's so good." The sudden change in her own character seemed to remind her of Jacob, and the thought of her best friend sent pain reeling through her body. She missed him. It was only Thursday, and she would call on Saturday, but she didn't like waiting. It hurt to not be able to talk to your best friend.

She finished the food, making sure to wash the pan and the plate before she grabbed the grocery list and headed out the door. She turned on her iPod, letting Violet Hill by Coldplay flow loudly into her ears as she took the short drive down to the supermarket. She turned off her iPod and cut off the truck, making sure to hold onto the list and the money from Charlie's food money jar as she walked into the store. She ended up leaving the store with a lot more than she'd originally intended, the ideas of different types of food making her curious. She'd make something nice tonight to make up for the take-out her and her father had eaten the night before.

When she pulled back into her driveway, she sighed, the dim rain still beating against her windshield. The rain was beginning to remind her of the sad music that used to haunt her in her dreams. She quickly threw the thoughts out of her mind and, grabbing an umbrella, took the needed trips in order to bring all the groceries into the house.

Her mind kept drifting back to soccer and food, and as she cooked the glorious meal, she found herself eating spoonfuls of the soup and stealing sauce-covered meatballs that didn't make it to the spaghetti. As she put the homemade garlic bread in the oven, she sat down and decided to think a little about how she'd been acting. She realized that it wasn't like her, but at the same time she didn't particularly mind what was going on. She didn't know what could be causing her to act so out of character or why she was always so sore and hungry, but it didn't bother her much. Tomorrow she'd return to school and things would be normal again.

The smell of tomatoes awoke her from her stupor and she quickly resumed fixing the soup. The spaghetti, meatballs, and pasta sauce was already done, and in good time since Charlie would be home at any moment. When she felt that the soup and garlic bread was ready, she turned off the stove and set up the table.

Charlie walked in, put his gun down, and walked into the kitchen, following the smell of Italian food.

"You made this?" he asked.

"Yeah."

Charlie sat down at the table as Bella put a bowl of soup, a plate of spaghetti with two plump meatballs and a mushroom tomato basil sauce, and a piece of garlic bread at his seat. She was careful not to fall on her face while carrying the food, something the brunette considered a very Bella-like thing to do.

The meal itself was somewhat awkward, like usual, with neither Bella nor Charlie ever saying much.

"How was your day, Bella?" he asked after swallowing a large mouthful of spaghetti. "I see you went to the grocery store," he added, noticing the bags that were still on the counter. "You've been eating a lot lately."

Bella went rigid in her seat, thinking for a moment, her mind tracing over the last two days in her mind. She had been eating a lot lately, and the last two days' events had been both uneventful and extraordinarily strange for her, despite the continuous thudding in the back of her mind that she tried so hard to ignore. Yet, even as she had sat watching the soccer game, the sound of her heartbeat monotonously pounded on, bothering her to no end as much as she let herself become enthralled in the sport.

The thoughts swirled through her unbalanced mind and upset the balance at the core of her being, shooting pain through her slim body and causing her to drop her spoon and let out a painful cry.

Charlie was at her side in an instant, helping her to her feet and wrapping his arms around her as she curled tightly into a ball and took in deep breaths, attempting to sooth the pain. She only continued to moan as the waves of pain shot through her.

Before she even realized it, Charlie had helped her to her room and the brunette fell unconscious into her bed, her heart weakened from the pain of her current state. The last thing she heard before her mind slipped away for the night was the melancholic, sorrowful song of haunted violins and a slow heartbeat monotone.

_Just because I'm hurting_

_Doesn't mean I'm hurt_

_Doesn't mean I didn't get what I deserve_

_No better and no worse_

_I just got lost_

_Every river that I've tried to cross_

_And every door I ever tried was locked_

_And I'm just waiting till the shine wears off..._

_-from Lost? by Coldplay_


	2. Not The Last Snowfall

**Author's note: **Again, I am very sorry if the last chapter seemed boring. I shall remind you, however, to pay attention to the little details, because they are clues you should take note of when reading that will hint you to the future of this story. I have a thing with keeping my readers on edge, and unfortunately, that forces you to sit through chapters of exposition. In this chapter, we get a little bit more plot than last time, and some more clues that you should watch for. That's right, look for those plot hints. Look for them, and don't spoil anything if you have any ideas. Another hint: the true plot begins with Renee's appearance, and she'll be appearing at the end of this chapter. Again, sorry if the last chapter wasn't very well-written; I'm not the best with chapters that aren't either purely plot action. This chapter may be the same way, but it should have a little bit more plot. AND ONE MORE THING BEFORE I LEAVE YOU. I put Bella's newfound love for soccer in there for a reason. I felt like the poor girl needed something to love, and why not a sport? As much as she probably wouldn't be able to play it, she could still like it. *gets shot*

**Terms to note: **The Barclays Premier League (also known as the English Premier League) is a bit like the NFL in America but for soccer in England. It's really famous, the fans are worldwide, and the star players are huge superstars. I would definitely venture to say that the EPL is better than the NFL. Maybe it's just because I'm biased towards soccer. Especially Liverpool and QPR. *shot again*

**Music: **The Last Snowfall by Vienna Teng and Violet Hill by Coldplay. I'll make sure to put the music in the order it appears so that I don't have to throw in a random label after the lyrics. It ruins the mood, bro.

_If this were the last snowfall_

_No more halos on evergreens_

_If this were my last glimpse of winter_

_What would these eyes see?_

_If this were the last snow curling_

_On your fingers, in my palm_

_If this were the last I've felt you breathing_

_How would I carry on?_

_This is not the last snowfall_

_Not our last embrace_

_But if I were that kind of grateful_

_What would I try to say?_

The violins returned to her weakened mind, their sound seeping through every open crevice of her mind and stripping her of her energy. Inside of her mind, it was hard to identify the piece, but she almost recognized it as an orchestral strings rendition of a lullaby she remembered from a happier time in her life. Each individual instrument seemed like a symbol of the pale brunette's pain and anguish that kept her up late nights and stole away her strength so that she could not breathe correctly without the pain of those wounds breaking her walls down and constantly reminding her of the man she so wished to forget. The violins' dark violet aura clouded her mind and mercilessly drained her energy.

The girl opened her eyes in the morning and realized that she had gotten just as little sleep the previous night as she had many nights before then. She was just as upset at the fact that she had let herself collapse in front of Charlie as she was that she had only gotten one night's worth of sleep before the nightmares returned, as inevitable as she knew they were.

She contemplated the reasons why the nightmares could have gone away for a night and found herself coming up with nothing, completely clueless as to why the violins decided to let her be.

Bella attempted to move her arm and noticed that the pain from the day before was still there, just as it had been when it first appeared. With some feat of her own will, she managed to get herself out of bed and walked down to the bathroom where she looked in the mirror at herself with a sad sigh. Studying herself in the reflection, she noticed that her eyes looked strange, though she could not put her finger on how or why. They just seemed different in some way that she could detect but not correctly identify. She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed, meeting her own reflection in the mirror. As she scanned herself thoroughly, she decided to change since she'd slept in her regular clothes and probably needed a shower.

This was the third day of school she was missing, which bothered her to no end since she was supposed to be at least a decently good student and skipping was _not _a good thing for a good student to do. While it was true that she'd felt particularly ill over the last few days, it was not as if she could not have attended school the day before. It probably would have done her more good to do so, considering that now she would have to make up the three days of work she'd missed. She resolved to stop by the school that afternoon and pick up the work she needed to finish so that she could get started on it over the weekend. Considering the amount of sunlight pouring in the dull window, she assumed that Charlie had already left for work. That, and she hadn't heard any noise throughout the rest of the house except for the rain against the windows and her own boring heartbeat.

When she was almost ready to step into the shower, she noticed something else strange about herself. Looking into the full-length mirror, she traced her fingers over her torso in shock.

"Is that a six-pack?" she mused, looking at herself with a curious look on her face, mixed with surprise. "I'm not muscular," she said flatly to herself. "If anything, I should be fat because I've been eating more than Charlie and I'm lazy."

After she'd taken a shower and changed, she walked downstairs to fix something to eat. She noticed a note on the fridge. "Had to leave for work," she read aloud. "Feel better. Renee is coming tomorrow. Charlie." Her mother was coming? Why was that? She sighed and pushed the thoughts out of her mind; her mother had never said anything about coming, and it almost made her angry that she hadn't been warned of this sooner. On top of the fact that she was sick, now her mother was coming to visit. _Great, _she thought bitterly.

Looking through the piles of food she'd recently bought, she decided to make a tray of buttermilk biscuits. As soon as she put them into the oven, she made a large sausage and cheese omelet. By the time she'd fixed the omelet, the biscuits were ready, so she pulled them out of the oven and set them on the counter to cool.

She scarfed down her omelet and ate all of the biscuits, putting honey on some and jelly on others, and still eating some plain. After she'd eaten, she hand-washed the dishes in rhythm with her heartbeat. Bella found that the water seemed colder than usual, despite that she had the hot water up all the way and the steam pouring off of the dishes signaled that it should feel a lot hotter than it did.

Bella sighed and checked the clock: 12:30. At three, she would go to the school to pick up her missing assignments. So until then, she decided to see if any soccer games were on TV. She was disappointed when she saw that no games were on at the moment but instead was happy to see that they were talking about several English Premier League games that had occurred over the last week. She spent the next two and a half hours analyzing players, stats, and rules that she didn't know about.

She didn't know exactly why the sport had begun to fascinate her so much, but it had, and she didn't really mind. It was something to watch, something to do, something that kept her occupied on those long, boring days at home. And specifically, those long, boring days when she found herself sick.

Just from watching TV, she'd begun to take a liking to Liverpool United. She had no particular reason to take a liking to that individual Premier League team, but that's the one she had taken a liking to. In addition to that, she found herself loving the accents of the people talking and wanting to hear more and more of them.

"Crap, it's three, isn't it?" she said aloud, looking at the clock to confirm her assumption. She felt a bit better after resting, despite her sore muscles, but she decided it would be best to take her temperature before going to the school and infecting everyone with her disease. Grabbing the thermometer, she stuck it in her mouth as she gathered her coat and keys. When she was almost ready to go, she pulled it out of her mouth and checked the temperature: 106. She nearly dropped the thermometer.

"Shouldn't I be dead?" she whispered to herself.

She ran up the stairs, stumbling and nearly falling back down, and into the bathroom, where she looked at her own face in the mirror.

"Am I dead?" she said again. She continued to study herself. She looked different, that she could tell, but exactly how, she didn't know.

It was then that she realized her symptoms were almost identical to Jacob's before Billy cut her off from him.

"Billy!" she gasped. She knew he must know something about whatever she had, because Jacob had developed the same symptoms. "And it's obviously not mono," she muttered bitterly.

After she made her way back downstairs, she grabbed the phone and quickly dialed Jacob's number. As she expected, Billy picked up.

"Billy?" she said, her voice unintentionally a near whisper.

"Bella?" he responded.

"Billy, I think something's wrong with me."

"What do you mean?"

She trembled as she held the phone. "You know how Jake had a fever the night of the movie? And he said he was in a lot of pain?"

There was a pause on the other end before Billy responded, "yes. Bella, if this is about Jacob, he's-"

"I'm getting the same symptoms. I thought maybe you would know, since you know what's wrong with him."

Billy paused again, for a longer amount of time than he had before. "Get some rest, Bella," he told her sternly. "Just get some rest, okay?"

And then he hung up. Bella stood at the phone, nearly shaking in a mix of fear and anger. She was terrified.

"What's wrong with me?"

* * *

><p>Instead of going to pick up her work, an exhausted Bella instead decided to obey Billy's advice and sleep, vouching to crash on the couch while watching a replay of the last Liverpool game. She awoke later to the sound of Charlie in the kitchen. She jumped off the couch and nearly tripped again as she ran into the kitchen. "Dad!" she yelled, leaning on the table to keep from falling over again. "I'm so sorry, I forgot about dinner! I fell asleep..." she shook her head to focus. "Mom's coming tomorrow?"<p>

Charlie nodded awkwardly. "She says she has a few things to tell." He sighed. "Bella, I already ate, and I had a long day at work. I'm gonna go ahead to bed."

Bella's eyes widened. Charlie, going to bed early? And true to his word, her father turned to go to his room. "Wait, Dad, what kind of things?"

"Just some important things, Bella. You'll see." With that, he left Bella standing gaping in the kitchen.

/break/

Things had gotten even stranger for Bella. She'd gotten in an easy nap, but that didn't mean she would have a good night's sleep. She was worried about the nightmares again and the sound of the haunting violins that constantly left her in a state of depression over _him._ She was also worried about the illness that racked her body, leaving her in what appeared to be a blatant state of decay, and the way Billy had acted when she called him. Thinking back on the call, he'd tried to say something about Jacob but she'd cut him off. And even more than that, her mother was coming the next day, and she didn't know what had gotten Charlie acting so strangely over Renee's visit. _Maybe it's just because it's his ex-wife we're talking about, _she tried to assure herself, but sensing inside that it was something more than that.

Bella contemplated all these things as she made macaroni and cheese, sticking the thermometer back in her mouth as she waited for the water to boil. When she checked it, her temperature had gone up from 106 to 108.

"Why the hell am I not dead?" she whispered silently, not knowing what was wrong or what exactly she was turning into. Thinking about it made her think back to a word that often haunted her at night: _vampires. _The monotonous beating in the back of her beat even louder. Her heart ached at the sound of the word in her mind.

She pushed the thoughts of vampires out of her mind and grabbed the phone, dialing her mother's number.

"Hello?" Renee's voice replied cheerily.

"Mom," Bella said. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming to Forks?"

"I wanted it to be a surprise." Bella caught the change in the other woman's voice clearly, even over the phone. Something was going on that Bella didn't know about.

"Mom, what's going on?"

"I have some news for you."

"Charlie made that clear. What kind of news?"

"It's a surprise."

"Mom, tell me."

"I'll be there tomorrow."

And she hung up. Bella stood there, angry and frustrated, because this was the second time in a day someone she desperately needed to talk to had just hung up on her.

* * *

><p>Bella had fallen asleep on the couch, remote in hand, television on some British sports channel she couldn't remember the name of. The last thing she remembered hearing about was some soccer player named Robin van Persie and a game versus Newcastle. That night, she dreamed, but it was not a nightmare or violins pounding in her ears. She dreamed about being stronger, less clumsy, and she dreamed about running. Running from dark figures and letting the wind push against her as she flew through the woods.<p>

When she awoke, she saw the sunlight pouring in the window and a game on television. It was Saturday, it was sunny, and I'd she had slept the entire day, dreaming of running and being less clumsy. Though, Bella admitted to herself that it was definitely better to dream of happiness than to go out in real disappointment, otherwise known as reality.

Reality was, of course, cruel and destructive to one's soul.

She thought momentarily of calling Billy again, but she didn't feel like it. She still felt hot, so she stood and stretched, her body still uncomfortably sore.

The next thing that shot through her mind was Renee. Was her mother here yet?

"Hello?" she croaked out hoarsely, hoping for a response. She was greeted by an enthusiastic squeal and the entry of three people into the room: her father, her mother, and her step-father.

"Mom," she said with a smile, somewhat refreshed by the nap. Then she remembered the phone call last night, and the smile turned into a frown as she said, "why did you hang up on me?"

Renee shook her head. "I had to," she said. "You would've spoiled the surprise!"

"Surprise?" asked Bella warily.

Renee grinned from ear to ear. "I'm pregnant!"

* * *

><p><strong>End note: <strong>And with this, our official plot begins. Sorry if this chapter sucked too, I sorta had to force myself to write it so that I could get on to the plot. I'm so ready for the plot to begin. After now, the chapters won't suck as much. c:


	3. Revelations and Transformations

**Author's note: **This is where the plot begins. We just had a huge bomb dropped on us...and an even bigger one is coming soon. This is the chapter when Bella's life gets flipped upside down. Also, despite the songs I mention below, I was actually listening to Bella's Lullaby and other such music. I don't know why I chose to use that for this chapter and not the last one, but yeah.

**Music: **Talk by Coldplay, How To Save A Life by the Fray, and Night of the Hunter by 30 Seconds To Mars.

**Chapter 3: Revelations and Transformations**

_Oh brother I can't, I can't get through_

_I've been trying hard to reach you, cause I don't know what to do_

_Oh brother I can't believe it's true_

_I'm so scared about the future and I wanna talk to you_

_Oh I wanna talk to you_

_You can take a picture of something you see_

_In the future where will I be?_

_You can climb a ladder up to the sun_

_Or write a song nobody has sung_

_Or do something that's never been done_

"I'm pregnant!"

Bella froze, her half-awoken body shocked by the news of her mother's announcement. "M-mom? Th-that's...great!" said the surprised brunette, a smile spreading across her tired face.

"I know, honey," Renee said, giving her daughter a hug and squeezing her until Bella felt like she was about to explode. "I'm two months."

"Already? How long have you known?" A big smile spread across Bella's face as her mother's arms remained wrapped around her.

Renee stepped back, letting her arms drop to her sides, and promptly responded, "two weeks."

Phil wrapped an arm around his wife. "Thank you, Bella," he said.

"So you came all the way here just to surprise me like this, Mom?" Bella said. "To be honest, Mom, I thought might have been dying. Don't scare me."

The faces of the three adults in the rooms suddenly became much more serious. Bella's heart began to race, and she found herself unable to talk, a feeling of mind-numbing fear spreading through her limbs and nearly leaving her immobilized.

"Honey, sit down."

Bella immediately obeyed, unable to control her own body enough to struggle. She, Renee, and Phil sat on the couch, while Charlie sat down in his armchair. Bella shivered, scared of what was going on. She didn't know, and she didn't know if she wanted to.

"Bella, we've been keeping something from you for a long time, and we don't know exactly how to tell you this..." Renee began, biting her lip. Bella could only nod, words escaping her as the fear immobilized her limbs and cut into her like knives. She was afraid.

"Bella...Charlie isn't your father."

Bella's heart nearly stopped.

"Your real father, Bella...is Billy Black. We were together...for a little while...but..." Renee turned away from her daughter, ashamed of the things she'd been hiding from the petrified brunette.

"Bella, I'm so sorry," she heard Charlie sob.

_Step one, you say we need to talk,_

_He walks, you say sit down, it's just a talk_

_He smiles politely back at you,_

_You stare politely right on through_

_Some sort of window to your right_

_As he goes left and you stay right_

_Between the lines of fear and blame_

_And you begin to wonder why you came _

_Where did I go wrong?_

_I lost a friend somewhere along in the bitterness_

_And I would have stayed up with you all night_

_Had I known how to save a life..._

Bella sat frozen like a statue, the words running through her head and cutting her like a block of ice. Her entire life was a lie? Jacob was her _brother? _Charlie wasn't her real father? How could this be possible?

She tried to say a single word and rage filled her mind, clouding everything and making her shake in rage and anger. She felt like she was going to explode.

Bella found herself running out the front door and towards the woods when she felt it. It was a painful, ripping sound, and before she knew it, she tumbled to the ground in shock and rolled a few times.

"Ouch!" she tried to say, but it came out a strangled howl.

She looked down at herself to see white, furry paws instead of hands and realized that something must be dreadfully wrong with her. She instinctively let out a broken howl, her mind racing, knowing that she had turned into some kind of monster.

_Someone new? _a voice sounded into her mind.

_I'm hearing voices again? _Bella thought.

_Who are you? Someone new? Great... Oh my God, this is so cool! Who is he? Shut up, you're an idiot. _A storm of voices, thoughts, and things Bella didn't understand began to flow through the frightened girl's mind, and she let out another choked howl.

She heard her mother scream, and turned to see where it had come from, noticing the pale figures she knew as Charlie, Renee, and Phil. They stood frightened, watching the monster Bella had become standing amongst her destroyed clothes.

_What am I? _she thought desperately, hoping that perhaps one of the voices would know what was wrong with her.

_Oh my God, you're a girl! _one of the voices thought, and she felt its feelings of glee rush through her mind.

_Shut up, _another one said, this one much calmer and more competent. _Who are you? _His voice seemed familiar. _My name is Sam Uley, and you aren't insane. You're a part of our pack now. Again, who are you?_

_Bella Swan, _she thought back, her heartbeat racing at a million miles an hour. The same Sam who'd found her in the woods on that day back in September?

_Oh my God, Bella? It's Embry. Jake's friend. _Finally, someone she knew. But Embry was a voice in her head too? _Bella, we're almost there. Calm down. You're freaking out._

Her heart froze, hoping that the last one wasn't who she thought it was.

_My mom...Charlie...Phil...they're..._

She heard footsteps coming out of the woods, looking up to see several shirtless Quileute boys walking out of the woods. She recognized Sam Uley, Embry Call, and one other guy she didn't recognize; she assumed it was either Jared or Paul, one of the other guys in Sam's gang. Embry had a blanket.

Embry ran up to Bella, apparently unafraid of the monster form she'd taken.

"Bella, calm down," he whispered. "You'll turn back into a human. That's why I brought the blanket...your clothes are ripped up all over the ground."

She noticed that she didn't hear any of the voices anymore, then with a pop, she was sitting on the ground, feeling Embry wrap a blanket around her and run his hand through her now-messy brown hair.

"Bella, it's gonna be okay," he soothed. He then turned towards the others. "Sam, get her, okay? Take her back to the reservation."

"Wait, what? Who says I want to come with me?" Bella said through clenched teeth, her body still shaking out of fear. None of the guys saw through her charade.

"Go get clothes for her," Sam said to Bella's three frightened family members. "Please."

The three of them ran back into the house, slamming the door behind them. Only then did Bella realize that it was pouring rain and that she was being soaked, even through the blanket. And despite that, she wasn't cold at all. "What am I?" she whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks. "What am I?"

Embry picked her up, her slender body still wrapped tightly in the blanket. "You're just like us, Bella. You're just like us."

"What does that mean, Embry?" she cried. "What does that mean?"

"It means you're a werewolf. A shape-shifter. And I'll be damned, Bella, you have one of the most impressive wolf forms I've ever seen."

"What's it look like?" she asked, not having paid attention during the shock of her change.

Embry grinned. "You were a big wolf with long, black, silver-tipped fur. It wasn't like the other wolves, though, you looked a lot more...feminine, I guess. You weren't as huge as the rest of us, you were more...I dunno, like a real wolf would be. It was cool. Probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. Don't tell Paul, though."

"Paul?"

"He's the other guy with us. We left Jared and Jake back home since they weren't on patrol. Boy, will they be surprised when they find out it was you who phased."

Bella's eyes widened. "Wait, Jake is like you guys too?" She refused to say the word werewolf, nor to refer to herself as one. Embry nodded.

"So, Bella," Sam said, walking up to Embry and the soaked brunette, the latter of whom was still in the arms of the former. "As far as I know, there have never been any female wolves. And in addition to that, I did not know you were a part of the Quileute tribe."

Bella flinched. "Billy Black is my real father, Sam..." she confessed, her voice barely above a whisper. Sam nodded, understanding that the topic at hand was not one Bella wished to discuss. It was a shock, though.

"Let's get her back to the reservation. Embry, can you get her to phase again?"

Embry shook his head, seeing the look on Bella's face that clearly stated that she was absolutely afraid and clueless as to what she was or what exactly was going on. Though, she had to admit that after hanging out with vampires, she couldn't be too afraid of anything.

"We'll take her back to the reservation," he said, his voice completely composed and serious. "Bella, you have a truck, right?"

The brunette nodded.

"Of course," said Sam.

"What am I, Sam?" Bella asked, her voice still quiet as Embry held her, wrapped in a blanket like a baby.

"Bella." She heard her mother's voice and turned her head towards the sound, and saw that Renee had packed a small bag that probably had clothes in it. _She thinks I'm not coming back for a while, _Bella realized.

"I'm so sorry, Mom..." said Bella, tears in her eyes. Despite her mother's composed look, she knew Renee had to be terrified.

Sam took the bag from Renee and asked, "are her keys in this?"

"Yes," said Renee. "Charlie told me to remember them. They're in the outside pocket."

Sam reached into the pocket of the bag and pulled out the keys.

"Embry, let Bella go in the house and change," he ordered. "Then you can ride with her back to the reservation. Jared and I will travel back on our own after speaking with Chief Swan, Bella's mother and her husband."

Embry nodded. "Bella, can you walk?" he asked.

"Yes."

He sat her down, the blanket still wrapped tightly around her, and the brunette walked back into the house, Sam following behind her with the bag her mother had given her. Renee watched as the two entered the house, Bella's mind racing.

She was a werewolf. _Oh, my God, I'm a werewolf. I can turn into a wolf. I can make myself change forms and turn into a _fucking werewolf_. What has my life turned into? Some sort of crazy joke? Oh, my God._

She walked through, past Charlie and Phil, who were sitting quietly at the kitchen table, and then up the stairs, Sam still following her. When they reached her room, Sam set the bag down.

"We'll be waiting, Bella."

As soon as he'd shut the door, Bella let herself slump to the ground. All the pain from the last few days had disappeared, being replaced with a strong, revitalized feeling that flowed through her veins. Looking at the clothes in the bag, it seemed as if her mother had packed for fashion. Well, Bella fashion, anyway. Seeing as how her clothes had exploded when she turned into a wolf-_phased, _as she'd heard Sam and Embry call it-she looked through her remaining clothes and picked out the shorts she wore for gym in school, tucking them into her bag with the other things. They were the only shorts she owned.

"They probably think I'm dead," she said aloud, a tint of humor in her voice, thinking of Mike, Jessica, Angela and the others.

Then a thought struck her. She was technically Quileute on her father's side, wasn't she? Did that mean she would be attending the school on the reservation now?

"Whatever," she said, changing into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She wasn't cold, so she figured she didn't need a jacket. _Maybe that's part of being a werewolf, too, _she thought bleakly.

She grabbed the bag her mother had packed for her and slowly walked down the stairs, finding the feat a lot simpler than she had previously. _Please tell me I got some agility out of all this chaos. Something good._ At the bottom of the stairs, Embry and Jared stood waiting for her. She could hear Sam talking to Phil, Charlie, and Renee in the living room. _My hearing's gotten better, too?_

"C'mon, Bella," Embry said with a calm smile. "We're taking you to the rez. You get to meet everyone. And maybe things will be a little easier to understand once we talk to you."

For some reason, Embry's voice made her a lot calmer. _Maybe it's because he's Jake's friend. Or because of the fact that he's like this too. A werewolf... _The word still sounded strange in Bella's mind.

Bella followed Embry, Sam tossing the keys to her as the duo walked out the door and out towards her car. Bella realized that it was much easier to walk, and she had no reason to fear falling across the pavement. _Shut up, Bella, if you think that way you know you'll trip, _she thought to herself as she climbed into the huge truck, noticing that it didn't seem as huge as it always had; perhaps it was because she'd grown taller. She made a mental reminder to check her height the next time she had a chance.

Embry got in the truck with her, and they began their drive towards the reservation. Bella tried to make small talk with Embry to avoid thinking too much about the fact that she was a werewolf.

"Will I have to move to the reservation?" she asked after a few moments of trying to gather up the courage to do so.

Embry gave her a strange, curious look. "You know, I don't know," he said truthfully. "You're technically Chief Swan's daughter, but you're also of legal age, and you're also part Quileute, so...I don't know."

The answer was enough to settle Bella for that moment. She continued to drive, nearly in silence, once again letting the thoughts and questions flood her mind.

When they finally reached the reservation, Bella instinctively stopped in front of Jacob's house. Her _brother's_ house. _He's gonna be surprised to hear this shit. _She paused in her thoughts for a moment. _Actually, I'm surprised he didn't hear us coming._

"Jake's house would be the first place you'd stop, Bella," said Embry. "I'll go get him."

Bella sat and watched in silence as Embry jumped out of her truck and ran up to Jacob's house, opening the door and calling out for his best friend. Bella, suddenly aware of her hair-which was still drying from the soaking it'd recieved earlier-and reached into her bag, pulling out a hair tie to tie it back in a loose ponytail.

From inside the house, Bella heard a sudden commotion.

"Wait a second, did you say _Bella?" _Jacob yelled in confusion. "How in the hell is that possible? She's not even Quileute, she's a girl!"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, bro. She's...she's your half-sister. Billy is her real father."

There was a silent, deadly pause.

"Wh-what? No fucking way. You guys have got to be playing some sick joke on me, aren't you?"

"No. You wanna see her? She knows all about us. Hell, she can probably hear you right now. Wolfie senses." Bella smiled at her new friend's use of the words "wolfie senses." She'd be sure to use that sometime.

"Bella? You can hear me?" Jacob asked hesitantly.

Pausing a moment before gathering her strength to reply, she opened the door of the truck and called out a single word, "yes."

She was met by her friend's appearance at the door, his hair cut much shorter than it had been.

"You cut your hair!" she exclaimed. "What happened?"

Embry appeared next to him. "If your hair's long it means you have longer fur when you turn into a wolf."

Bella flinched. Did that mean she would have to cut her hair, too?

"Bella, you're a wolf," Jake stated flatly.

"Yes."

"And you're my sister."

"Yes."

"Oh, my God."

Embry burst into laughter, unable to control herself in the serious moment. Bella smiled at the duo, amused by the look of confusion on her half-brother's face and the hysterical laughter coming from his best friend.

"Jake, I'm so sorry, it's not funny," he apologized, still trying to catch his breath. "It was just _your face. _Oh, God, I'm usually so serious about stuff like this..."

Jake studied Bella, a bit confused. "When did you phase?"

"I exploded in front of Renee, Charlie, and Phil."

"Exploded?" Jacob asked, grinning at how she referred to phasing.

"Well, it wasn't exactly in front of them. I ran out of the house and _then _exploded. But they all saw me when I was a...a wolf, anyway. So...what exactly am I?"

Jacob thought for a moment. "Remember the stories I told you at the beach last spring? You're just like that."

Bella sighed. "That helps me none."

Embry smacked his forehead. "Jake, you're an idiot."

And with that, she sat down with Embry and Jacob, and they told her the story of the Quileutes, and everything they knew about what they'd become.

/break/

_February 28th..._

Alice sat in her kitchen, randomly flipping the channels on the television. She'd occasionally get flashes of her family-and occasionally Bella-in her visions, but other than that nothing interesting happened and she was getting tired of it. Edward had disappeared, gone off to some place no one knew about-and everyone but Rosalie seemed to be openly worried about him. Everyone knew Rosalie actually cared, but every time the touchy subject was brought up the blonde only called him an idiot and moved on to doing something else.

Suddenly, the pixie vampire froze, her eyes flashing to Forks. She saw the image of Bella at dinner with Charlie, and then the image disappeared, replaced by foggy blackness. _Nothing._

Alice began frantically searching for the brunette, the love of her brother's life, and found herself coming up with nothing. _Absolutely nothing._

Just a black blob of nothing in particular. The absence of Bella's presence in her mind left a void, a void that worried Alice to no end.

"I'm going to Forks," she whispered quietly to herself, her brain already scheming for ways to escape her family and get to the tiny Washington town without being noticed.

/break/

**End note:** And this is how it begins. Sorry if you feel I rushed into the plot-I couldn't take the boring, zombie Bella for very long. Blah.


	4. Gaining Back Lost Strength

Oh my God, I'm so sorry this took so long! I've had really slow internet lately and I've barely been able to upload anything. I am soooooo sorry to everyone waiting for this.

Author's note: I've decided to leave out Jared's imprint for now, just because I don't feel like it would contribute much to the plot and it's unnecessary details that may conflict with events later on. I'm probably going to do the same with Quil and Paul. Emily and Sam's was too important to leave out, and I do use it A LOT in this story, even more so when I will introduce Leah into this later on.

Music: I was listening to Spotify's anti-love songs playlist while I was writing this because it helps capture the feelings of the main characters. I'm not gonna even bother to list all the songs that contributed to this chapter. The three I'll specifically mention are Stronger by Kelly Clarkson, I Hate Everything About You by Three Days Grace, and All These Things I Hate by Bullet For My Valentine. Songs I use will have the names underneath them.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: Gaining Back Lost Strength<strong>

_What doesn't kill you makes you stronger_

_Stand a little taller_

_Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone_

_What doesn't kill you makes a fighter_

_Footsteps even lighter_

_Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone_

-from Stronger by Kelly Clarkson

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><p>A week had passed since Bella became a wolf. Nothing particularly eventful had happened since Saturday night, which gave the other wolves enough time to get used to having a girl in the pack. Bella had adapted surprisingly well to her new agenda, including her enrollment in the school on the reservation. The classes weren't as hard as she expected, and since she'd been staying on the reservation, she was easily able to figure out how being a part of the pack actually worked. It took a full two days for her to begin to fit in with the other wolves, and even less time for Emily Young, Sam's fiancee and the object of his imprint. She'd already learned everything she needed to know in order to be kept up to speed with the other wolves, including the updates on the appearances of Victoria. The night of March 4th, the day she'd first phased, they'd encountered a shocked Laurent, who they'd surrounded and were ready to kill before Bella managed to calm them down enough to talk to.<p>

When she'd gotten them calmed enough, she'd slipped away from the pack and phased back into a human, changing into a pair of gym shorts and a tank top before walking back out to the meadow, where the other wolves had surrounded him. She managed to get a lot of useful information out of them, despite her vocal repulsion to the vampire's natural smell. She couldn't have been sure, but she thought she'd heard the strangest sound: a wolf, laughing. And she swore it was Paul. Laurent had told them that he was staying in Alaska with the Denali clan, learning to live off of animal blood like the Cullens had. Talking about the other coven didn't seem to bother her after a few minutes, the pain in her chest dulling after she'd said the words Edward and Cullens several times each. The wolves had learned of Victoria's interests in killing Bella, and that he'd originally come to kill the brunette painlessly so that Victoria didn't get the mercy of torturing her. Bella made him swear not to tell the Denali clan about his encounter with her and the wolves, and made him swear not to ally himself with Victoria anymore. He agreed, and with slight hesitance, the wolves let him go.

The next day, Bella realized that what she'd done was probably very stupid, because he could at any time betray her existence and the existence of the pack to the Cullens or the Denali coven, or worse, the Volturi Coven she'd heard about from Carlisle.

As much as Sam had wanted to kill Laurent, he couldn't seem to say no to Bella, who'd been very adamant about not killing him and giving him a chance to live. After all, she'd told him, he was trying to change himself for the better by giving up the lust for human blood. She'd been sure not to associate him with the Cullens, knowing that the wolves had developed a sort of hatred for them after being exposed to her true feelings in wolf form. Even Paul had admitted that he felt depressed after the first time he'd phased with her, something none of the other wolves expected someone like Paul to admit.

It'd been a week since the night they'd seen Laurent and no trace of any other vampire could be found anywhere near the reservation. Now, it was another Saturday night, and the skies were clear over La Push. Bella lay on the sand at First Beach, cool water running over her feet, dressed in her patrol gear, looking up at the stars. She had much better vision, hearing, and smell, even in her human form, ever since she'd become a wolf. That last Saturday had been so rushed for her, and it'd all happened so fast, and now she had so much more time. She'd purchased a phone in her free time, and a pretty impressive one at that. It was an HP iPAQ hw6515a, a complicated name that Bella referred to as 'that phone thing' that allowed her to keep in touch with the others and check the scores to soccer games whenever she wasn't home to watch them. She'd taken the money out of her now pointless college fund.

She'd been at Emily's earlier that day, watching the Liverpool game with increased enthusiasm. Jared, Sam, and Embry had joined her there while Paul and Jake went out on patrol. At halftime, Bella'd helped Emily prepare lunch for everyone, including the two guys out on patrol. It wasn't until she'd been around the wolves for a little while that she realized exactly how much food one werewolf could eat, and the answer was a lot.

She was supposed to be on patrol with Jared, watching for Victoria or any other vampires, but she'd decided that there was nothing eventful going on, just a few races between herself and her patrolling partner, so the two had phased back and were now lounging around at First Beach. As much as Bella didn't want to cut her long hair, her fur was irritatingly long, so she was beginning to consider cutting it short. I'm probably too tall to cut my hair like Alice's...I wonder how I'd look... she mused. Jared was lying on a particularly large boulder, stretched out like a dog would if it were sunny and he were sunning himself. The clear skies were a rarity, and so the two took advantage of the break in the pouring, dreary rain.

Bella's phone vibrated and she picked up the lumbering device from its spot on her stomach, checking the message. It was from Sam.

"Jared, our patrol's over. You tired?" she said. The brunette stood up, wiping off the clingy wet sand from the back of her clothes and from her legs.

"Not really. Did you guys tape the Barcelona game from earlier?" he asked, having already jumped up from his place on the rock.

She grinned. Jared had already been a fan of soccer since before she'd been on the reservation, but he didn't have anyone to really talk to about the sport, and Bella became that person. She'd also gotten the others into it as well. Sam, Emily, and Jake didn't appear to enjoy it quite as much as she, Jared, Paul, and Embry did, though, so their alpha didn't take into consideration when games were on when he told them when they were to go on patrol.

"Of course we taped the Barcelona game, stupid," she said, laughing. "Embry was out on patrol when it came on, and Sam refused to change his mind about the time of patrol so we just agreed on taping it and letting him watch it later."

"Works for me," he said. "Thank God for DVR."

Since Laurent's appearance, Sam had ordered the wolves to stick together incase one of them tried to come onto the reservation. They'd been using Emily's house as base, all of them staying there except for Jacob and Embry; Jake just didn't want to and Embry had to go home because his mother didn't know he was a wolf and she'd probably call the police. Police being Charlie.

After Bella'd phased in front of him, Renee, and Phil, Sam had graciously explained what she was to them and then allowed Renee and Phil to go back to Jacksonville without any real struggle. Jake commented that he wasn't exactly supposed to do that, but given that Renee was Bella's mother, he probably figured the elders wouldn't mind his pardon if they found out about it later.

The three took it surprisingly well, though the knowledge that Edward was a vampire-and the enemy of the Quileutes-shocked all of them. Sam had informed Bella later that Charlie had smiled a little at the news that they were blood enemies.

To the other wolves, referring to the Cullens as any more than enemies and sources of information had been made taboo. Bella's resentment had grown since joining the pack, an intense dislike for Edward gave the wolves yet another reason to hate him. They'd seen her thoughts about him, and she'd felt their reactions and felt their feelings towards him. Edward himself hadn't been mentioned since Monday; when they spoke of the Cullens, it was as if he were not even one of them.

"Bella, you coming?" Jared asked, looking at a zoned-out Bella who was staring off into space, thinking over the last week in her mind.

"Yeah, I'm coming."

The two left the beach; Bella grabbed her bag from the rocks and put her phone back into it before slinging it over her shoulder and making their way back to Emily's place.

They kept silent as they entered the house, knowing that Emily and Sam were asleep. The duo sat down on the couch, the brunette snatching up the remote and turning the television to the recording of the Barcelona game, noticing that the couch was still warm; the two wolves on patrol had only recently left and probably knew by that point that Bella and Jared had phased back early. I'm gonna get chewed out for that, Bella said, mentally cringing and thinking of what her brother would say to her when he got back.

As Jared took his seat on the couch, Bella snuck off to the kitchen and grabbed a bag of chips that she'd purchased earlier that day. She sat down at the table and did nothing in particular but think, something that had previously been harmful to her, but was now quite relaxing and helpful now that she had joined the wolves. It was strange, she thought, the things that had happened to her since joining the wolves; in particular, the fact that her heartbeat had stopped thudding in the back of her head and instead resumed its place in her chest, just like heartbeats were supposed to. Things like that weren't just supposed to happen, she thought, the painful feelings that had plagued her for months and were now simply disappearing weren't just supposed to go away like that. The fact of the matter was, she was absolutely enthralled by the changes her transformation had made in her. Though, being the blood enemy of the vampire had its disadvantages.

Blood enemy of the vampire.

It wasn't her bronze-haired ex-boyfriend that came to mind here-and that's simply all she thought of him as, her bronze-haired ex, never thinking of him by his name-but his "sister," Alice. She didn't want to be Alice's enemy, by no means; Alice was smart, powerful, and quite hyperactive, which probably came with her tiny size. Even after the bronze-haired vampire had left her, Bella still considered Alice to be her friend, though the sudden abandonment without warning did hurt her feelings a bit. Alice knew it was coming, she could see the future...

"Oh, shit." Bella said aloud, not quite loud enough for Jared to hear but enough to startle her out of her own trance. Alice could see the future...did that mean she could see what was going on in her life right now? Did that mean she knew Bella was a shape-shifter? Alice...

Deep inside of her, Bella wished that Alice would come back to Forks. Carlisle and Esme returning would be okay with her, too, though she figured that they wouldn't return without her bronze-haired ex-boyfriend in tow. And that wouldn't be good, now would it? she thought sourly.

Bella knew precisely why she was supposed to not think so kindly of the Cullens, and yet she found herself unable to speak badly of them, excluding one ex-boyfriend of hers.

Hours seemed to pass as Bella sat in the kitchen, eating chips and letting her mind wander over all the possible situations her mind could imagine. She didn't notice that none of the wolves had come back to Emily's, and she didn't notice that Jared had disappeared from the living room.

What she did notice upon snapping out of her trance was the sharp, cold, icy smell of a vampire.

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><p>Cliff Hanger, hanging from a cliiiiiiiff!<p>

And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger!

Oh, I'm so lame~


End file.
